The Writer's Life

From Deb Calleti on Facebook:  (one of my all time favorite YA authors!)

I am often asked how much research I do for a book. The answer is: more than you'd think. Because, not only do I have to research the larger elements in a book - animal behavior (JADE), the link between genius and madness (WILD ROSES), obsession (STAY) - but also some pretty trivial ones. Today alone, I had to look up "signs of transmission trouble", "concepts of Catholicism", and "plants that bloom in July." Interesting job, this.

So True!  Who knows how many books I checked out over Aztec culture!  Not to mention the hours spent on Google searches for "Aztec flower songs" , "upscale townhouses in Weslaco", and "plants native to the Valley."  And countless of other bizarre things for my novel Awake. 

For my new novel, The After, I have raked through all kinds of google searches dealing with Pancho Villa, turn of century Valley environment, and zombie myth.  There's also the huge encyclopedia of Gothic Literature I've had all summer.

I hope to say that being a writer is a full time job for me one day.  I mean, it is a full time job already, but I mean my only full time job that pays me...